Addressing a meeting with cabinet members, U.S President Donald Trump once again exposed his obvious hypocrisy. While the American president expressed his desire to visit Pakistan and meet Prime Minister Imran, he considered it essential to blast Islamabad for housing the “enemy”. According to Trump, Pakistan was not fair to Washington which made him end the 1.3 billion dollars that the US was sending Pakistan. Ironically at the same time, he wanted to start peace talks with the Afghan Taliban and wanted to have a meeting with Pakistan regarding the matter. American Senator Lindsay Graham told CNN in an interview that if Islamabad was successful in helping the US negotiate with Taliban, the U.S would offer Pakistan a free trade agreement. Donald Trump had also recently sent a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan in requesting for his help in order to negotiate with the Taliban. Strangely, a month prior to that the US president did not forget to blame Pakistan in an interview with Fox News, a channel highly supportive of the Trump administration.

The only thing that can be expected from the current administration in Washington is one thing; hypocrisy. Pakistan should not act in a neutral manner nor maintain a positive tone but always should be on guard and take full advantage of its ties with China in order to be firm with the U.S. It is pretty clear that despite constant reminders, the US does not really acknowledge the many deaths that took place in Pakistan due to the war on terror and instead is putting its frustration of losing the war on Islamabad. The U.S influence in South Asia is weakening day by day. Pakistan’s new leadership has rightfully made it clear that it will no longer be a punching bag. Despite different methods and for different reasons both countries are on the same page when it comes to resolving the conflict in Afghanistan. However, the problem is that Pakistan and the US don’t understand that it is not their burden to bear anymore. The issues in Afghanistan and how to deal with it should be the responsibility of the Afghan government and its people. Pakistan should focus on its own borders and try to look at the problems in Kabul from a lens because as a neighboring country, it might have some impact on Islamabad. The Trump administration may act confused and they have made it obvious but some smart leadership elements of the U.S have realized that Afghanistan is out of their hands and now it’s time to fund militants and cause chaos in some new country for resources.